Oceans of Slumber defy any and all convention. For the past 15 years, the Houston band has come to redefine what it means to be Southern Gothic by mixing melodic death, doom, and black metal with subtle electronic flourishes and the overpowering heat of their hometown.
Today, Oceans of Slumber are pulling back the curtain even further by officially announcing “Where Gods Fear to Speak”, which was produced by GRAMMY nominee Joel Hamilton. The album’s second single, “Poem of Ecstasy”, breathes new life into the metal scene by remaking a timeless story in its own dark cinematic image.
“I’ll do everything to stay by your side“, Cammie belts. Her cleans push back against the charging blast beats like a force field, but while she only gains strength from sinking into the profane depths of her newly anointed death growls, there’s still a feeling that something deep inside is holding her back. “And I’ll do anything except stop what I’m chasing“.
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It’s damn near impossible to constrict Oceans of Slumber to one genre. “Where Gods Fear to Speak” opens with more of the sultry doom metal headbanging that long-time fans have come to expect, but the band’s new single breaks entirely new ground. Punishing blast beats and a blackened torrent of melodic tremolo picking collide with Cammie Beverly‘s powerhouse cleans, a skyrocketing guitar solo, and synths that swirl like the aura of a mystical planet. So what do we call this otherworldly occurrence?
“Where Gods Fear to Speak exists somewhere between The Handmaid’s Tale, The Dark Tower, and Cormac McCarthy”, says drummer Dobber Beverly. In addition to drumming for grindcore legends Insect Warfare and American black metal trailblazers Necrofier, Dobber is a classically trained pianist who composed Oceans of Slumber‘s new album. “It’s part science fiction, a part western gunslinger with a heavy dash of post-apocalyptic survival”.
Of course, no movie is complete without a compelling soundtrack. “Poem of Ecstasy” splices together so many stand-out scenes that it could spin off as its own mini-epic. We open on frontwoman Cammie Beverly, doing vocal runs in the moonlight cast by a twinkling piano, only to cut from outlaw country to doom-laden power metal and what can only be described as “dystopian grindcore”.
Not every movie has a happy ending. While plenty inspired, Cammie‘s last words on “Poem of Ecstasy” ring out like a cry for help. “Save me / Save me from myself”, she sings, climbing into the tender reaches of her upper register, as pounding drums and tendriled riffs threaten to drag her down into the song’s fiery crypt.
The album’s concept blurs the ideological lines between Dune, Blade Runner, and The Dark Tower, though its first single loops back to real-life events. All five members of Oceans of Slumber are from Texas, where organized religion can be as suffocating as the dust or heat. Growing up, Cammie was caught in an especially hard bind. Her childhood home was divided over her father’s dedication to the Institute of Divine Metaphysical Research and her mother becoming a Jehova’s Witness. “Regardless of which one you believe, organized religion makes us suffer in order to please this heavenly deity”, Cammie says. “But the payoff is only an illusion”.
